June 10, 2018 6:01pm EDTJune 10, 2018 6:01pm EDTFootball, News, FIFA World Cup, English, FIFA, Gianni InfantinoThe prospect of the 2022 competition being increased to 48 teams has taken a hit after FIFA's president said talks have been shelved for now

Ryan Benson

Published on Jun. 10, 2018

Jun. 10, 2018

Discussions over a 48-team World Cup in the Qatar 2022 tournament have been removed from the agenda of the 68th FIFA annual conference, the governing body's president Gianni Infantino has announced.

Infantino had previously suggested he was optimistic about increasing the number of participating nations in the showpiece event by 16.

But the likelihood of such a scenario now appears to have been dealt a major blow, with the FIFA Congress – which is made up of 211 federations – having no input on the matter.

Instead, FIFA's Council will now continue discussions with hosts Qatar, with the number of stadiums said to be a particular stumbling block.

Speaking after a FIFA Council meeting in Moscow on Sunday, Infantino said: "The dates have been fixed from the 20 something of November until December 18 with 32 teams in Qatar, and this is the decision and the decision stands and that is the end of the story.

"In this case it was 10 associations raising a request and the South Americans rightly say; 'If we have more teams participating in a World Cup, we will have more teams to have the quality to participate and who can win'.

"And Chile, who is the winner of the Copa America, are not in Russia and they raise this question, so it is normal.

"Now what we will do is the administration of FIFA will discuss this with the host on whether there is a possibility and what this possibility would look like.

"If there is no possibility then we know what we have and it will stand to what we have."

"Fine, but the wrong decision was taken and without VAR it would remain wrong, with VAR at least we have a chance that the wrong decision is corrected.

"So, I don't see negatives with the VAR and in those countries where VAR is being applied now, they can already not live without it and when we see the statistics, also which were published I think yesterday or the day before in Italy, they are incredible in terms of accuracy of decisions. I am very confident it will work well and it will help the referees."